Scales’ gilded-style portrait among Archibald Prize entries delivered to Art Gallery of NSW

Tsering Hannaford’s image of community leader and artist Sally Scales – painted in the style of a Gilded Age society portrait- is a contender for the $100,000 Archibald Prize.

Artist Tsering Hannaford delivers her Archibald Prize entry of artist and community leader Sally Scales. Picture: John Feder

Adelaide artist Tsering Hannaford waited until Monday to put the finishing touches to her portrait of artist and community leader Sally Scales – and it came down to a choice of lipstick.

“We wanted it to be glam, but it didn’t need the lipstick,” Hannaford said on Friday, as she ­delivered it to the Art Gallery of NSW.

Pictures of the famous and not-so-famous have been making their way to the gallery since Monday to meet Friday’s deadline for the 2022 Archibald Prize.

Hannaford said she had ­painted Scales – a Pitjantjatjara woman and member of the Uluru Statement leadership team – in the manner of a Gilded Age society portrait.

“I’m just incredibly inspired by Sally; a young woman my age who’s a single mother, and she is absolutely kicking goals and doing something really meaningful,” Hannaford said.

“She brings so much positivity to her work, she is very passionate.”

A portrait of James Stanton-Cooke arrives at the Art Gallery of NSW for the Archibald Prize. Picture: John Feder

A portrait of Brooke Boney by artist Laura Jones arrives for the Archibald Prize. Picture: John Feder

Scales said the painting captured her “essence” as a leader, artist and mother. It shows a tiny hand reaching towards her – that of her six-year-old son, Walter.

By close of business on Friday, more than 800 entries had been received for the $100,000 Archibald Prize, and another 1100 ­entries for the Wynne and Sulman prizes. They include portraits of Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness by Paul Newton, architect Glenn Murcutt by Fiona Lowry, and journalist Brooke Boney by Laura Jones. The Weekend Australian’s art critic, Christopher Allen, has been painted by his wife, Michelle Hiscock.

The gallery’s head packer, Brett Cuthbertson, said he expected fewer Archibald entries this year compared to other years.

“The floods, and people can’t get their works here, or can’t even paint,” he said. “Someone this morning drove down from Lismore.”

Hannaford, a seven-times ­Archibald finalist, said she had referred to the style of 19th-century society portraitist John Singer Sargent for her painting.

“We wanted to capture some of that feeling in this portrait of Sally,” she said. “Those women of the past were ­ladies of society, really elevated by these portraits. Sally is a working artist, she’s a mother, she deserves to be elevated in the same way.”

Finalists for the Archibald Prize are announced on May 5, and the winner on May 13.